Housing and Public Works Minister Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain on Monday said about 80,000 flats would be constructed in the Purbachal residential area for all, including slum dwellers and lower-income people.
“The government will construct sustainable dwellings for the rural people through the National Housing Authority (NHA) with a view to achieving the target of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The process is under way to start the construction work of 80,000 flats in Purbachol project area soon,” the minister said while addressing a discussion at Osmani Memorial Auditorium in the city marking the World Habitat Day.
Mosharraf said the government has already started allocating readymade flats among clients in Uttara area.
The minister said, “The government will construct about one lakh flats in Uttara third phase, Purbachal and Jhilmil residential areas.” Secretary of the minister Md Shahid Ullah Khandaker presided over the discussion addressed, among others, by UNDP Country Director Sudipto Mukherjee, RAJUK Chairman Abdur Rahman, Chief Architect of the Department of Architecture Kazi Golam Hasib and Chief Engineer of Public Works Department Mohammad Rafiqul Islam.
NHA Chairman Khandaker Akhtaruzzaman presented a keynote paper at the function.
The housing minister said the government has taken special measures so that rural people can build modern and sustainable houses. “Multistoried buildings should be built in rural areas as land of the country is less against the population,” Mosharraf said, adding that his ministry is also constructing multistoried building for the government officials.
Stressing on building houses in a planned way in the rural areas of the country, Khandaker Akhtaruzzaman, in his keynote paper, said on an average 235 hectares cultivable land is being lost everyday due to construction of residential houses.
He also stressed on keeping the cost of building houses within the capacity of common people so that they can get proper accommodation facilities. Akhtaruzzaman said the government has approved the new National Housing Policy-2016 after changing, refining, amending and coordinating the National Housing Policy-1993.
Earlier, a colourful procession was brought out in the city marking the World Habitat Day.
